Zook hopes Illini develop big-play potential

Over its last seven games last fall, Illinois averaged 42 points a game and went 4-3 with a bowl win.

As the Illini started spring practice Tuesday, coach Ron Zook said he’s looking for more.

DAVID MERCER

Over its last seven games last fall, Illinois averaged 42 points a game and went 4-3 with a bowl win.

As the Illini started spring practice Tuesday, coach Ron Zook said he’s looking for more.

“We’ve got to get more big plays,” Zook said. “We’ve got to be able to turn 5- and 10-yard passes into 50- and 60-yard plays.”

The offense developed as the season went on. Illinois was limited early by redshirt freshman quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase’s inexperience, and relied throughout the season on running back Mikel Leshoure, who set an Illinois season rushing record with 1,697 yards while scoring 17 touchdowns.

The result was a 7-6 finish, including the Texas Bowl win over Baylor, that ended a year of talk about Zook’s job security.

After back-to-back losing seasons, Zook was forced at the end of 2009 to clean out most of his staff, hiring, among others, offensive coordinator Paul Petrino and defensive coordinator Vic Koenning.

With almost an entire new staff — not to mention a new quarterback playing in a new system — Zook said spring ball started last year with an uneasy feeling.

“I was worried about taking a snap the first day last year,” he said.

This year, he said, the team should benefit from stability, and from a second year in the new system.

“Football is a reaction game — the more times you do the same thing, you’re not thinking, you’re just reacting,” he said.

Zook said the pressure to produce the big plays he’s looking for doesn’t fall only on his young quarterback. But two of the top receiving targets, A.J. Jenkins (wrist) and Darius Millines (foot), will miss spring practice with injuries.

Scheelhaase should be better equipped this fall to throw the ball, giving the Illini the chance for more balance. Illinois ran the ball 68 percent of the time last fall. Scheelhaase threw 264 passes (completing 155 of them for 17 touchdowns and eight interceptions) and at times looked like he couldn’t throw any more.

“Nathan probably last year, as a redshirt freshman, threw more passes than he’s thrown combined in his life,” Zook said. “There were times when he was tired when we tried to back off a little bit.”

Scheelhaase has added about 15 pounds since fall, and Zook said his quarterback should be stronger.

He’ll likely have to be.

Leshoure left after his junior season for the NFL draft, leaving senior-to-be Jason Ford the top running back. As Leshoure’s backup, he had 480 yards on 99 carries but has struggled with weight problems and is working with a nutritionist to try to keep his weight around 230 pounds.

“We’ve showed him tape of what he is when he’s 242, 243, and where he is when he’s 235, and there’s a big difference,” Zook said.

Scheelhaase was last year’s second-leading rusher with 868 yards on 185 carries and Zook’s offenses at Illinois have almost always liberally substituted running backs.

Along with Leshoure, the Illini will be looking to replace two other players who left early for the NFL, defensive lineman Corey Liuget and middle linebacker Martez Wilson.

Zook said offensive lineman Craig Wilson is moving to defense to take on Liuget’s role at tackle. Wilson’s linebacking spot, the coach said, could eventually be filled by Ian Thomas, who will be a senior this fall and filled in for Wilson in 2009 when he missed most of the season with an injury.

With the win in Houston, Zook quickly went from a coach whose job was in question to a man about to get a raise — from $1.5 million a year to $1.75 million.

Athletics director Ron Guenther told reporters last month the bowl win did indeed make a big difference but he expects the Illini to head back to another bowl this year. Guenther acknowledged that’s could be tough to pull off at Illinois, noting that no one’s done it since John Mackovic was head coach from 1988-91.

Zook said he and his staff started talking about how to do it almost as soon the Texas Bowl finished.

“Our goal as a football team is to take where we finished and build on that,” he said. “We talked about it from the day we came back.”

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